So I made a movie
My extended absence from johnaugust.com can now be explained: I’ve just finished shooting a movie, an honest-to-God feature film. A tiny film, to be certain, more likely to be seen at festivals than fourteen-plexes, but a movie nonetheless.
Officially, it’s my directing debut, but it hasn’t really felt like it.
As screenwriters go, I’ve always been pretty involved in production. (For instance, I directed second unit on Go.) And in television, the creator of a show ends up playing a huge role on set; my two pilots have been like directing with a seasoned pro to spot me. So even though I couldn’t necessarily say which light is working as key and which one as fill, I felt confident pointing with two fingers in a V to indicate “camera goes here.”
So what’s the movie about?
Well, here’s where I slink back into secrecy a bit. Trust me: My silence is only to protect you from fatigue and boredom. Even in the fastest timeline, we’re editing through the end of the year, then playing festivals in 2007. If a distributor buys the film, then maybe, maybe we would show up in theaters at the end of 2007, but 2008 is probably more likely.
I have trouble staying interested in a movie for 80 minutes, much less 18 months. So I’ll save the details until we’re much, much closer.
Suffice to say it’s a drama — hopefully funny in places, but unlikely to be slotted in the “Comedy” section of Blockbuster. (Assuming Blockbuster still exists in 2008.) It’s currently untitled (or, Untitled John August Project on IMDb). But it’s not the Untitled John August Project from several years ago at Sony, which I can tell you now was sort of like King Kong but scarier. And never got written.
The Movie (which is how I’ll refer to it from now on) is broken into three parts, like Go, but that’s pretty much the only similarity to Go. The Movie both is and isn’t a sequel to an earlier work, which I mean as cryptically as possible.
We shot 22 days in Los Angeles, with two days in New York City (where I am as I type this). We had a terrific cast, and an extremely hard-working crew — pretty much all union, which is rare for such a tiny movie. We shot a combination of film and video, with everything being posted in HD.
In coming weeks and months, I’ll write more about the process. But for now, I’ll be getting ready for the helicopter unit.
Yes, we’re a tiny movie with helicopter shots. Who wrote this shit?
Articles
June 24th, 2006 at 11:17 am
Sounds like fun- good luck on that. Hope to catch it on the festival circuit soon.
June 24th, 2006 at 12:22 pm
When can we expect a trailer?
Good luck, sounds great!
June 24th, 2006 at 12:46 pm
Congrats on (nearing?) the end of principle. I’ll go ahead and speak up in saying that I would really appreciate details about developing this project. It seems that screenwriters have really taken to the internet as a way of mentoring the community at large, but directors haven’t.
June 24th, 2006 at 12:51 pm
and will you be taking the “a film by” credit . . . ?
(kidding)
June 24th, 2006 at 1:23 pm
My friend told me you were in New York and ruined this secret for me. She told me you were directing and had written the project so I knew what you had been hiding all this time… oh well
June 24th, 2006 at 2:18 pm
Congrats. I’ll keep my eye out for it at festivals.
June 24th, 2006 at 4:39 pm
Congratulations, John and good luck!
That really was a surprise to me!
June 24th, 2006 at 6:19 pm
Congrats Mr. Writer/Director. You’ve crossed over…
June 24th, 2006 at 8:46 pm
how awesome, i am very curious to know more about this…but if you wanted to talk about it, you would…i want to know who’s in it, more than anything, but so i will wait.
–RC of strangeculture.blogspot.com
June 24th, 2006 at 11:59 pm
So it is, and it isn’t a sequel? No Katie Holmes? No Angels? No chocolatier? No skeleton dog?
Oh, you’re breaking my balls, John. :P
June 25th, 2006 at 1:12 am
Grats John, look forward to checking that out! :)
Gonna jump straight into the “Help me I’m a newb” mode and ask a question;
I’ve written a couple spec scripts, two TV, one feature and want to send it out to numerous agents. My question is how should I package it and what should go in the cover letter? don’t want to inundate them with too much info about how awesome I am etc.
Cheers and welcome back ;) – Lyndon
June 25th, 2006 at 5:32 am
Well done, buddy. Is it How To Digest Fried Worms? Next up has to be How Stella Got Her Grave Back, by the way… :)
June 25th, 2006 at 6:00 am
Other possible John August sequels:
Corpse Divorcée Titan AEtc Went
June 25th, 2006 at 6:56 am
My bet is on “God”. Check it at IMdB
June 25th, 2006 at 7:52 am
Well, you must be tired. Hard enough to grip a film, let alone direct one. Take a good brake and play with your dog. Possibly for a whole day, hell, you deserve it.
June 25th, 2006 at 9:49 am
josh friedman didn’t post a single message during that time!!!!
June 25th, 2006 at 3:14 pm
Fantastic! Hope to see it at a festival near me in due course. I look forward to reading lots more about the processes involved.
June 25th, 2006 at 7:37 pm
I like “Went.” While we were shooting Go, we kept calling it Stop. And for the brief time we were considering a sequel, it was always called Going.
June 25th, 2006 at 8:02 pm
Sheesh you’re busy! I assumed you were writing BTM.
June 25th, 2006 at 10:41 pm
So if you wrote a “Go” trilogy, does that mean it would be “Go, Going, Gone”?
June 25th, 2006 at 10:43 pm
how about:
the Chocolate Factory II – Class Action
the break down into the three part structure mentioned
Part I: the Death of Augustus Gloop Part II: Mr. Wanka Goes to Court Part III: Sweeter Than Revenge
June 25th, 2006 at 11:18 pm
Wow, excellent. Unexpected. Hope to see it soon. You have to tell us more. Also, I wanted to know, did you finance this film yourself?
June 26th, 2006 at 12:14 am
Well, that´s the way to go, Sir John. Greetings and congratulations from the tiny Non-Hollywood-part of the world.
June 26th, 2006 at 1:14 am
I guess as long as it isn’t “Vent”, you’re fine. ;)
June 26th, 2006 at 2:02 am
Congrats man, now get started on that Zombie western damnit! ;)
June 26th, 2006 at 5:02 am
Congratulations!
Roll on, big river, roll on…
June 26th, 2006 at 9:05 am
That is SO interesting to me. I love writing, but I’m not crazy about the idea of dealing with the money, the stress, etc. of taking it all the way through production. What was it that made you decide to go for it and take the plunge as an independent?
June 26th, 2006 at 10:02 am
Hey man, I’m all for helicopter shots…so long as they’re not used between EVERY scene like in that horrible Mariah Carey vehicle “Glitter”…ugh, not that that was the only thing wrong with the film.
June 26th, 2006 at 7:56 pm
Not sure if you’ve had time to follow the discussion on artfulwriter.com. Be interesting to hear an “A list writer/first-time-director”‘s take on it all…
June 27th, 2006 at 8:13 am
Jon B,
Alas, The Movie is Glitter 2.
June 27th, 2006 at 8:43 am
Congrats, John! I like how I write “John” as if we are old friends… If what you are putting out there has even an ounce of the soul and brilliance of “Go,” you’ll be fine. Cheers! Scribe.
June 27th, 2006 at 8:52 am
Hearty congratulations. It’s always a treat to see writers expanding their roles and finding new ways to bring their unique voice to the screen. Hope all goes well in the unending post.
June 27th, 2006 at 9:11 am
I’m also curious – without needing any specific details, how was the film financed?
June 27th, 2006 at 11:20 am
Add me to the list of people who would love to hear about the business/financial/technical side of making a movie. I just moved out to SoCal myself to do the writing thing, and of course would love to look into making my own low-budget stuff (already have a short and full-length that could easily be filmed as low-budget/independant). Even if you just didn’t wanna do any of it and hired someone, I’m sure we’d love to hear about the process.
Also, checking the Untitled John August Project on IMDB, they list a Russian Drug Dealer as a character. Based on that alone, this is firmly in my Top Ten of 2008.
June 28th, 2006 at 7:55 am
Congrats John. I can’t wait to read more.
June 28th, 2006 at 12:42 pm
Cool. Looking forward to seeing it… in a couple of years. But cool.
July 1st, 2006 at 9:15 pm
I CANNOT WAIT. Why 2008? Hurry it up!
August 12th, 2006 at 2:08 pm
Hey John,
I was just reading your latest post about the horrors of “test-screenings” and the potential of having your filmed reviewed before it’s finished. With that said, I’m offering my services if you ever feel the need to get fresh eyes on the project. I work out here at a production company and would gladly help with comments…and I’ll sign my first born away as collateral. Feel free to send me an email for further info if you’re ever interested. Best Wishes.
January 19th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
This movie is horrible man. Shoot yourself in the head, I was bored to hell…
January 21st, 2008 at 1:24 pm
Quote “Janus: This movie is horrible man. Shoot yourself in the head, I was bored to hell…”
Answer: Well Janus, its easy to understand why you felt bored. I’m guessing it was because your intelligence during the movie was probably about coherent as your awareness of your opinionated reference to the movie (“bored to hell”).
But no, I’m sure your smarter than that normally, and of course you saw all of the biblical references in the movie, and understood what Mr. August was trying to convey in his (first) film.
As for you John August,
Great work for your first film.
All all that I will ask of you is for more.
March 15th, 2008 at 8:58 pm
I’m nobody to any of you, just as most of you are nobody to me, but for what it’s worth: I absolutely loved “The Nines”.
Thank you, John August. I enjoyed your movie a great deal, and as that should be the objective of any work of entertainment, I rate it a huge success. Please feel free to make more, and I shall be happy to watch them.
March 22nd, 2008 at 5:45 pm
just saw the movie…. it blew my mind… fucking epic my hats off to you john august so much so that i sought this site out to tell you so, finding out its your first film also blew your mind cos its so damn good.
i liked the reference to “Misery” haha you are very stephen king-esque… i liked even more when gary was sitting at the bus stop thats at the bottom of my street (Dunsmuir), im new to living in the city, used to live in the burbs about 20 minutes away, so im still getting used to seeing my street in everything
i certainly hope to see more from you and am going to buy the movie right now to support your endeavors…
–jon 3.22.08
April 2nd, 2008 at 8:24 am
I just saw The Nines and it was terrific. I hate people who use ‘this meets that’ comparisons, but I’m going to do it anyway…it was like The Fountain meets Donnie Darko. And it was more than just that, a lot more. As an Indian who (accidentally) happens to specialize in myth cycles, I can’t tell you when I last watched a movie–an American movie at that!–which actually came close to capturing the mystery and surrealism of reincarnation stories from the ancient Indian epics. The Nines was that movie, and I’m amazed that you got it made, and made so well at that. You rock, man! You are so on my list of must-watch directors from here on.
April 10th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
Hi John – saw your film last night – great – really enjoyed it and what a cast who all turned in extraordinary performances. I must say I think both Ryan Reynolds and Melissa are movie stars – so watchable as actors. Mr. Reynolds, it seems, can shoulder pretty much any genre out there and Melissa, who I have not seen before, was superb.
Great intricacy in the script – clever details and great execution – thought it was great. Looking forward to your next one. Good Luck.